An Interview with Steradian Laser Tag

It has been a while since a new interview video has been added to the Oral History of Laser Tag collection. My apologies, all I can say is…well, 2020.

However as 2021 gets underway there will be plenty of new videos to share, some of which were recorded prior to the start of the pandemic, like this interview with representatives from Steradian Technologies Laser Tag.

I would like to thank Kevin McDonald (production manager, repair and purchasing) and Amy Baker (quality assurance, shipping and rentals) of Steradian Laser Tag for taking time for an interview with me during IAAPA 2019.

http://lasertagmuseum.com/images/videos/steradianinterview.mp4

This is the latest addition to the Industry Leader Interviews at www.lasertagmuseum.com and I look forward to more being added soon. Enjoy!

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

An Infusion of Awesome Thanks to the “Mod” Squad

Good things do come in small packages… But sometimes they also come in big UPS boxes!

So let me start with the story behind these System T/Infusion packs. Several months back I saw a seller on an entertainment industry resale website offering a whole lot of these packs at a very reasonable price and describing them as “for parts”. Well, for parts or otherwise I was definitely intrigued and I dropped a note expressing my interest in them. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear back right away, and simultaneously was pursuing another (unsuccessful) effort to obtain some Infusion packs for my collection. By the time I finally got a reply and confirmed my interest someone else had pulled the trigger and within only a few minutes I got a follow up email saying the packs had already been sold. :(

Fast forward to a few months later, I have just been gifted a couple of V3 packs from Australia and after seeing me post about them my friend, the great “General Nicolas, Grand Master of infusion” (aka Glendale) mentions something interesting. His friend Noah (who I met at a tournament in California a couple years ago) is working on refurbishing some Infusion packs...and it turns out that these are those very same packs I saw online a couple of months earlier!

For what it’s worth, in hindsight I’m glad Noah beat me to the buy. Refurbishing electronics like this that date back about twenty years is quite a talent. We worked out a deal that resulted in a big box of awesomeness arriving on my doorstep!

I’m going to call Noah and Nick my Mod Squad (in this case “mod” as in modification). I am lucky to know people who can tech packs because I am NOT a tech savvy person at all. I really have no idea what went into revitalizing these packs, but I am appreciative that I am connected with others who do have that skill set.

It was quite a thrill to hear the familiar sounds again.

My last time playing Infusion was either in 2016 when I brought a group of friends out for a pre-con tag night in Albany on the last weekend that Zero Gravity used it before they upgraded to Helios Pro or it may have been at Stratum whenever I last made it out to Mesa, AZ prior to them switching to Helios 2. 

I showed these packs to Ethan and Jackal who got into checking out old school Zone for the very first time and realizing these packs were older than they were! 

I also want to give big thanks to the Glendale guys for putting these packs in my hands. This system is sentimental to me as Infusion was the very first laser tag system I ever played back around 2006 and that gets me reminiscing about my first ever laser tag home, Fun Junction. Over the holidays I took some time off from work. Since I couldn’t go anywhere this year, vacation with no travel equaled time on my hands for craft projects. So I used that time to cross stitch the old FJ map sampler-style.

This is now hanging in my office as a reminder of all the great memories I have of this site, this system and laser tag in general. After all, there’s no place like Zone. :)

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

The First Five Miles

I must say that doing five miles in a laser tag arena is WAY more fun than doing five miles on a treadmill and my Fitbit can’t tell the difference!

Last night I went out to play some laser tag for the first time in 2021. Since my current options for traveling are extremely limited as restrictions continue to tighten up in many states (including some that border my own) I’m going to have to find ways to challenge myself closer to home. I’ve decided that to tide me over until I can get back to tag travels again I will pursue distance goals while playing at my home site instead. So, I am kicking off the year by tagging my way towards 25 miles in the arena, starting with my first five miles last night.

It was still a bit quiet when I got there, so Jackal unwittingly got roped into this challenge too as my sparring partner for the first few games. However, I don’t mind doing 1v1 games, especially since he doesn’t hold back. And more players arrived within the hour, so I had plenty of opportunities to reach my goal, determining from the get go that I was going to tackle the first five miles during this visit. Reaching 25 total miles of tag will be cumulative over several visits. But to get to five miles this night I figured I’d just keep playing for however long it took until I hit that mark. As it happens, that only took 12 games to accomplish. Here is how I accumulated five miles…

The first three games were all 1v1 against Jackal:

Game 1 – Supercharge (a good way to warm up) - .35 miles

Game 2 – Redline (mixing it up…this format was not designed for 1v1, but I actually really like it because it shifts your focus off tagging the other player and onto being strategic with ALMOST deactivating the bases) - .30 miles

Game 3 – Dead Aim (Jackal had never played this format before) - .35 miles

Three games and one mile down!

Game 4 – Team Standard (more players arrived, so we switched back to the regular games) - .50 miles

Game 5 – Color ranked solo - .50 miles

Two more games got me to two miles.

Game 6 – Team Standard - .40 miles

Game 7 – Color ranked solo - .44 miles

Game 8 – color ranked solo .41 miles

Those games got me to a little over three miles.

Game 9 – Color ranked Supercharge - .50 miles

Game 10 Team Standard - .35 miles

That brought me to just over four miles.

Game 11 – Color Ranked Supercharge - .50 miles

Game 12 – Team Standard - .42 miles

And that’s how I got to five miles of laser tag in 12 games.

I remember reading on the LQ website that one of their average games was equivalent to about 400-500 steps or approximately .25 miles per mission, so I was playing a bit more intensely than that. While I’m sure this estimate will vary by system, format and length of game there is no denying you can get a good workout playing laser tag and log some miles at the same time. That's good, since I’m not currently able to log miles anywhere else!

Fox asked me what my next tag adventure was going to be. At this point I really don’t have any better answer than to say “THIS is my next adventure” because I have no idea when I’ll be able to get back on the road for travels to other laser tag centers. Even locally the laser tag options are getting a bit more limited once more as two of my other go-to spots are temporarily closed again. I do want to stress that I believe it is important to wear a mask and keep your social distance in the arena, but fortunately I have found this to be very manageable when I do get to play. I also make a point of playing with the same pack every game, which gives me some personal comfort that when I play continuously this ensures I am the only person touching that particular pack (other than for sanitization).

So, for the time being my tag goals will just be about logging my distance inside a 5000 sq. ft. arena rather than logging distance across the country like I did previously. When I was traveling I used to love bringing back souvenirs from my adventures, but I guess that won’t happen again for awhile…or will it?

I noticed as I was leaving that there were a couple of light up souvenir glasses left in the case where tag merch is kept. I also noticed that one was a little different from the others that I already had. How could I have missed this?

Upon closer examination, this glass had the image of a female laser tag player aiming a phaser and it is captioned “Laser Tag Girl Power”.

Well, looks like I might be able to bring home a new souvenir after all. :) So, I happily added this to my collection.

I look forward to whenever I get to complete the next leg of my journey as I continue on my way toward tagging to 25 miles.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com